"Twitter, more so than other social media platforms, has a vocally progressive work force and many employees who are deeply invested in the company’s mission of promoting 'healthy conversation.' Those employees may believe — for good reason! — that under Mr. Musk’s leadership, Twitter will abandon many of the projects they care about in areas like trust and safety.... It’s worth noting that in his texts with Mr. Musk, [Twitter CEO Parag] Agrawal claimed that a 'large silent majority' of Twitter employees supported Mr. Musk’s vision. But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over. It’s also worth noting that Mr. Musk may not mind if thousands of Twitter employees show themselves the door. He has implied that the company’s staff is bloated, and now that he needs to justify a $44 billion price tag, an exodus of unhappy employees might be the kind of savings he’s looking for."
Writes Kevin Roose in "Elon Musk’s Twitter Will Be a Wild Ride/His deal to buy the company is back on. Here are six predictions about Twitter under Musk’s control, if it happens" (NYT).
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86 comments:
In my lifetime, once the Left takes over an entity it never relinquishes control. It has simply never happened.
This is an extension of Sullivan's Law that any organization that is not explicitly right-wing will drift to the left over time.
Pardon my cynicism, but I expect the purchase to fall through or produce no tangible change.
Sure. They will quit because. Just like leftie actresses all move to Canada every time Hitler wins an election
"Twitter will abandon many of the projects they care about in areas like trust and safety"
The projects they care about in areas like cancellation and exclusion, IOW, the prog project.
Twitter is a prog tool. Progs rarely have their tools taken away. In fact, might this be a first? It is a defeat and a slap in the face. It is intolerable.
It remains to be seen if Twitter can continue in anything like its recent form if the prog backlash leads to a lefty boycott. If such shunning happens, righty inclusion is unlikely to compensate, and might make the takeover an even worse economic proposition.
"Twitter, more so than other social media platforms, has a vocally progressive work force and many employees who are deeply invested in the company’s mission of
suppressing all views they disagree with,
FIFY
Those employees may believe — for good reason! — that under Mr. Musk’s leadership, Twitter will
stop censoring conservatives, and allow actually diverse conversations to take place
FIFY
It’s worth noting that in his texts with Mr. Musk, [Twitter CEO Parag] Agrawal claimed that a 'large silent majority' of Twitter employees supported Mr. Musk’s vision. But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over.
And if every single Twitter employee quits, we'll know you're talking to representative employees.
If not, we'll know you are just talking to the left wing fruitcakes.
It’s also worth noting that Mr. Musk may not mind if thousands of Twitter employees show themselves the door. He has implied that the company’s staff is bloated, and now that he needs to justify a $44 billion price tag, an exodus of unhappy employees might be the kind of savings he’s looking for."
It's much cheaper to have people quit, than to have to fire them. So I expect that Musk will work hard to rub the hard core lefties the wrong way, so that they'll self deport
"trust and safety" and "healthy conversation". - Yeah, pull my other leg.
"But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over." I used to work in a Bay Area startup that had some very loud, liberal employees. I figured it was better to just keep my mouth shut. Was I part of a large silent majority? No, but I know I wasn't alone either. I also have to think that threats to leave Twitter are a lot like threats to leave the US if the current GOP candidate wins.
Rank-and-file tech employees are a dime a dozen. Talented leadership is difficult to find but Twitter has been so crappy for so long that any new blood will likely be an improvement.
Musk's greatest vulnerability is that he's overleveraged against his own Tesla stock even now; once the market tanks and his stock price plunges he'll need to borrow billions at 1980s-style interest rates. The smartest thing he could do as a hedge would be to rebrand Twitter as Musk! and then convince his creditors that (like the bankrupt Trump organization in the 1990s) he's essential to the operation and they'd be better off sticking with him for pennies on the dollar rather than dumping him and trying to recoup their losses. As Bob Dylan says, there's no success like failure.
"Another easy prediction to make about Mr. Musk’s takeover is that it will generate enormous backlash among Twitter’s rank-and-file employees...."
Reminds me of the reaction from 90% of Federal Employees to Trump winning the White House. I'm betting that the vast majority of Twitter wanks will stay on (resign? In this economy?) and just sooth their angst by throwing sand in the gears. Again, just like 90% of Federal Employees did to Trump.
"It’s also worth noting that Mr. Musk may not mind if thousands of Twitter employees show themselves the door. He has implied that the company’s staff is bloated, and now that he needs to justify a $44 billion price tag, an exodus of unhappy employees might be the kind of savings he’s looking for."
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
The twitter staff deserves to be purged after what they have done over the last six years. Plus, most liberal institutions are bloated. Colleges and Universities for example...government bureaucracies.
Let's hope this catches on and starts a trend.
Let them leave.
The market is still hot for talented programmers, but not nearly as hot as six months ago.
They will be self-deporting so Twitter will not have to pay benefits, and they will forfeit any upcoming stock option vesting.
Sounds like a win for Musk.
Btw, most big tech companies are 95% run and staffed by left-wingers, so Twitter is hardly alone...
But Mr. Musk’s “replatforming” will extend far beyond the former president. A host of right-wing culture warriors could come back to the service with Mr. Musk’s blessing, including those who were barred for expressing hateful views, spreading false conspiracy theories and harassing other users. (In his text messages, Mr. Musk told Mr. Agrawal that he wanted to reverse all permanent Twitter bans “except for spam accounts and those that explicitly advocate violence.”)
Oh, the horrors! Alternate views actually expressed in the public square. Whatever will they think of next?
- Krumhorn
The SJWs at twitter aren't going to quit. Elon will have to fire them and give them the severance package their contract entitles them too.
If you go with the popular opinion that Musk (a) thinks Twitter has bloated expenses and (b) thinks Twitter is oppressive with its censorship, then I don't think Elon would care all that much if the left-wing activists all quit. It would save him the trouble of firing them.
Has anybody felt unsafe from reading a tweet? Has anybody ever trusted something because it was tweeted? Anybody?
"of promoting 'healthy conversation'"
Lefty speak for censorship of conservatives.
Wake me up when the ink on the deal dries.
Getting rid of the fascists at Twitter can only be a good thing.
"But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over."
But what about the employees who identify as "they" and "it"?
If this mass departure pans out, Musk will have performed a public service.
many employees who are deeply invested in the company’s mission of promoting 'healthy conversation.' This made me literally (not figuratively) laugh out loud.
But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over.
Let me guess: moving to Canada?
Musk may free hundreds from a Dickensian nightmare. All the Bill Sykeses will quit, and all the Orphan Olivers will finally find a loving family.
All the leftists will leave? Doing everyone a favor. bye.
Musk is going to regret this purchase if he completes it. The company worth next to nothing unless he can make the users pay a fee, and I don't see that succeeding. He has the right vision for what free speech is and how it should apply to that particular platform, but that doesn't make this a good business deal for him. As for the employees, he would be well rid of them, but they can do a lot of damage before they are shown the door.
'healthy conversation.' you mean, Censorship.
Those employees may believe — for good reason! — that under Mr. Musk’s leadership, Twitter will abandon many of the projects... you mean, Censorship.
People are Terrified that people (other people) might be able to speak their minds
Shoeless Joe took time out, from throwing World Series to say..
I'm betting that the vast majority of Twitter wanks will stay on (resign? In this economy?)
Interesting, isn't it?
Last year, there were MILLIONS more jobs than there were people to fill them..
This year, where are the Jobs???
Last year; the idea of walking away from your high paying tech job sounded reasonable
This year; that is NOT going to happen.
Jobs are GONE
Elon has enough money from SpaceX and The Boring Company that he can use Twitter as a platform for Tom Paine types. Best news since DJT won in 2016.
After Musk pays that much for Twitter, he’s going to expect results.
Gen Z and Millennial employees going to get Bobby Knight as their boss now.
Vocal progressives should MapQuest for the fastest route to the unemployment office. some will soon learn the true value of a fine arts majpr with minor in gender studies.
What do Twitter employees do? I can see an issue if a large number of employees at a content-producing media outlet walked away, but that ‘s not Twitter.
This will come as a rude shock to lefty software developers everywhere, but there are excellent software developers out there who are conservative. That is, one does not have to belong to the left wing loonie fringe to write good code. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that a certain route to great wealth would be to buy lefty software developers for what they’re really worth and sell them for what they think they’re worth.
The thing is, after this bid, withdrawal, forced buy with the revelations about the number of bots, no one can doubt that Musk will implement major reforms. Reforms likely to drive off many of the useless employees who focused on social control.
And calls for Musk not to reform will identify those, Leftists, bureaucrats and Democrats, who support a Twitter-bot universe. All things that would have been tough if the original offer had gone through straightaway.
I have never understood how it is that Twitter makes money. Does it show ads? User data marketing?
One of the first things I would do if I were Musk is to publicly say that if he discovers any employees committing sabotage on the company's software, he will sue them silly.
Tell them they will be joining the homeless on a SFO street by the time he's done with them.
That should "encourage the others".
ga6 said...
Vocal progressives should MapQuest for the fastest route to the unemployment office. some will soon learn the true value of a fine arts majpr with minor in gender studies.
*************
If you leave on your own w/o having another job, or you are fired "for cause" (see y previous comment) you can't collect unemployment.
But in Libland, there's always welfare, EBT cards, free Medicaid...
Musk marches double time towards Waterloo, convinced of his victory.
Just as months ago he was convinced he could get out of the deal or drop the price.
Kevin Roose and NYT predict ...
o He’s going to clean house, starting with firing Twitter’s chief executive, Parag Agrawal.
o Employees will revolt.
o Donald Trump will return to Twitter, along with a swarm of other right-wing culture warriors.
o It probably won’t change the midterms, but 2024 could be the Elon Election.
o Twitter will kill unpopular features, go after bots and introduce new subscription products.
o Musk will remain the center of attention.
Didn't go very far out on the limb there.
JMR: "I have never understood how it is that Twitter makes money. Does it show ads? User data marketing?"
The vast majority of twitters revenues are ad-based, which explains why Twitter has been lying about their User #'s/Available Eyeballs.
Musk has made it clear that he wants to take the company private, make the code open source and thus crowdsource programming improvements and weed out the bots to improve UX, clear out at least half the employees with wokester-"safety" jerkoffs first out the door, and move to a more user focused organization and create pay-tiers of service to replace the ad revenue focus.
These changes come out of years of discussions, including with Founder Dorsey.
Interesting note re Musk: Musk has often lamented not taking Tesla private early on. It was his biggest strategic mistake so I suspect he has already garnered majority shareholder support for just that action.
---he's overleveraged against his own Tesla stock even now
Musk's been a significant seller. What do you base your over-leveraged statement on, Prole? Your knowledge of his private accounts?
---once the market tanks.
Nasdaq's down -30% year-to-date. May be headed down -80% like other major bear markets. But the stress has already hit anyone over-leveraged.
Howard: "Wake me up when the ink on the deal dries."
....he said while biting his nails and tearing up...
Let them leave.
The market is still hot for talented programmers, but not nearly as hot as six months ago.
Do you think it's the programmers who are threatening to quit? I think it's the people who come up with things like, "If you work at Twitter, you’re a Tweep. And every Tweep has the power to change the company." Or maybe the ones who "keep an eye out for computational propaganda".
But in Libland, there's always welfare, EBT cards, free Medicaid...
You left out "move back home with mom". Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that - it depends on whether they are working, looking for work, or just regressing back to their teen years.
Ambrose asked: What do Twitter employees do?
The perception is that they spend their time stalking conservative viewpoints and expunging them. Twitter might regain some balance if a lot of staff did leave.
Let them quit. Then move Twitter HQ to TX or TN.
'I have never understood how it is that Twitter makes money. Does it show ads? User data marketing?'
It hasn't increased market value.
Up until this spike prompted by Musk, the company was worth exactly the same as it was after its first day as a public company.
Until Musk it had gained zero value...
Musk should form an outside truth and accountability commission and fire those employees who engaged in illegitimate censorship.
It sounds like too many of the employees think that they run the place. Perhaps they need to be disabused of that notion.
One of the big cheese at Google promised that Trump would never be allowed to be election again.
Also - Google is now blocking GOP e-mails re funding and sending them to spam.
Google(D) is Soviet-Putinesque.
From the article (which somehow I was able to read): "Mr. Musk, who styles himself a centrist but often crusades against the “woke left,” …"
The author seriously believes these two things are contradictory?
"Twitter will abandon many of the projects they care about in areas like trust and safety"
Otherwise known as censorship. Twitter engenders "trust" amongst the people it allows to use its service by banning voices they would disagree with.
How many people work at Twitter? About half.
A variation on an old UN observation.
It still amazes me how the so very few run all of media! Twitter is a garbage dump of humanity, but it has such an outsized voice in almost everything.
It’s a religion.
Seems like a rerun. The story came, went through all of its curves and angles and permutations and was exhausted. Now it's back again and it's hard to care much about it. Twitter, too, doesn't have the interest factor that TikTok has. Aren't we just waiting for the next new thing that will sideline Twitter as Twitter sidelined Facebook? And shouldn't Elon be waiting too?
"But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over."
I suspect Musk is counting on it. It's much easier and quicker for them to leave on their own than to have to go through and weed out the parasites. An immediate improvement in the operation of Twitter will follow.
It's easy to make a prediction. Not so easy to be sure of its accuracy.
As Shoeless Joe said above, mass resignations are less likely than sand-in-the-gears sabotage.
There's an old saying about not letting the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
I suspect Musk would be pleased to see 90% of Twitter employees leave, allowing him to hire all new people who believe in freedom of speech.
Those of you who want the deal still have time to load up on Twitter shares on margin and make a very handsome profit when the deal goes through. What could go wrong with that play?
Musk’s letter reviving the deal leaves him two outs:
1) “pending receipt of the proceeds of the debt financing contemplated thereby”
2) “provided that the Delaware Chancery Court enter an immediate stay of the action, Twitter vs. Musk, et al. (C.A. No. 202-0613-KSJM) (the “Action”) and adjourn the trial and all other proceedings related thereto pending such closing or further order of the Court.”
So is the deal really back on or is this just a legal maneuver to get out of the deal and the lawsuit via the financing clause?
"Well ....Bye", Curly Bill, Tombstone
"A host of right-wing culture warriors could come back to the service with Mr. Musk’s blessing, including those who were barred for expressing hateful views, spreading false conspiracy theories and harassing other users."
Like they do here, right?
I'd start by quietly compiling a list of everyone with pronouns in their bios and have security teams disable their computer access as of 0001 AM and escort everyone who shows up out of the building en masse by 10 AM on the first business day.
Build on what's left.
Kai Akker: "Musk's been a significant seller. What do you base your over-leveraged statement on, Prole? Your knowledge of his private accounts?"
Prole seems to become quite irritated whenever anyone starts fighting back a tad too strenuously against the democraticals.
I mean, thats the sort of thing that gets one disinvited from all the best parties.
it is as if they have learned to code and jobs are waiting for them in Silicon-sphere Universe
But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me
Before reading any other comments - "I don't understand how Nixon won! Nobody I know voted for him."
I always laugh at the 'Twitter is such a slag heap of incandescent horseshit' comments because that's exactly what it is not in my experience. All the people I interact with are if not polite at least not gratuitously profane, thoughtful if sometimes liable to a certain non-sarcastic sense of humor, believers in one way or another other, chiefly Catholics, perhaps conservative also in a general sort of way but certainly not anarchist bomb-throwers et cetera. Twitter is what one makes of it-- at least so far as the corporate guardians of so-called 'safety' allow it let it be. If you follow the people who concern themselves with 'The Voice Fans Shocked', 'Dark Brandon', 'Globe-Trotting Botanists Beaten to Death and Fed To Crocodiles' and 'Velma is Officially a Lesbian', well, you get the trash you invite into your life. I'm interested to see what changes happen when EM takes the reins.
Earnest prole,
Did any creditors lose any money in any of the Trump organization bankruptcies?
Can you name any?
You do realize that they were chapter 11 bankruptcies don't you?
As far as I could find when I looked 5-6 years ago, all creditors were fully repaid.
Your unpaid creditors are like all the unpaid contractors.
Mythical
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
Left Bank of the Charles: "Those of you who want the deal still have time to load up on Twitter shares on margin and make a very handsome profit when the deal goes through."
Twitter closed at $51.30 today, down 1.35%.
The Musk purchase agreement price per share is $54.20, which is not far off Twitter historic highs.
So no, there is no additional profit to be had. All the smart money jumped in months ago and then waited for Musk to re-commit to the deal which brought the share price all the way back up.
Carl Icahn bought in at the dip for $500M and is now looking at a sweet $250M profit once the deal closes.
Left Bank, tell us, do you have to work hard at being this uninformed and dumb, or does it just come naturally to you?
Learn to code!
Twitter permanently suspended me because I had a habit of calling people useful idiots. But they won't delete my account and they won't let me delete my account. That's one way to keep their numbers up, I guess.
All Musk has to do is create transparent rules and then measure against them on an individual basis. For an internet-based company that is almost 100% virtual in its transactions, that's going to be a snap for a programmer like Musk to put in place. The turnover of personnel will be along the lines defined by the renegades who currently have huge, undisciplined discretionary power to target wrong-speak for any reason. They probably romanticize their role as being some kind of modern Wild West Frontier Cowboy justice. That'll give them a good excuse to leave: Civilization has arrived.
It'll be a fun job - for the right kind of HR person.
Prole seems to become quite irritated whenever anyone starts fighting back a tad too strenuously against the democraticals.
Right — that would explain why my comment on the Althouse post immediately preceding this one was:
“In 2018 fully two-thirds of Democrats believed Russia had literally hacked voting machines to deliver the election to a complicit Donald Trump; if that isn't Civil War talk I don't know what is.”
I suspect your lips move when you read.
"But virtually every Twitter employee I’ve spoken to in the last six months has told me that he or she plans to leave if Mr. Musk takes over."
Virtually, but not all.
How many did he talk to? 10?
Earnest Prole: "Right — that would explain why my comment on the Althouse post immediately preceding this one was:"
Your "retort" does not remotely address my observation.
Whether or not your lips move at all when you read.
I'm getting whiplash. First it was "Musk can't buy twitter!" Then it was "Musk must be stuck with Twitter! Pay up! Whee!" Now it's "Even if Musk buys twitter it won't be the same!"
Make no mistake though, Twitter is in line for a major cultural shift. They've been at the vanguard of the "But My Feelz" generation's mischief and destruction. But Musk hasn't built an e-car empire, nor has he launched half-a-bazillion satellites with his hugely successful SpaceX program, by deferring to the Feelz. He's managed to staff up those enterprises with young and imaginative talent that has delivered pretty impressively by any measure, and gaming government largesse is part of that. If he brings that culture to Twitter, it will change overall culture, period.
Your "retort" does not remotely address my observation
Tis but a scratch -- just a flesh wound.
Shoeless Joe said...
Reminds me of the reaction from 90% of Federal Employees to Trump winning the White House. I'm betting that the vast majority of Twitter wanks will stay on (resign? In this economy?) and just sooth their angst by throwing sand in the gears. Again, just like 90% of Federal Employees did to Trump.
This is how it will start. Progs are barbarians with no integrity or principles. They are capable and actually enjoy being traitors.
But everyone is pretty fed up with the prog bullshit now. A lot of people who had cushy work from home jobs are going to be out of that work soon.
Earnest Prole said...
Right — that would explain why my comment on the Althouse post immediately preceding this one was:
“In 2018 fully two-thirds of Democrats believed Russia had literally hacked voting machines to deliver the election to a complicit Donald Trump; if that isn't Civil War talk I don't know what is.”
Do you actually support anything?
Or is it all just empty snark?
If Musk wants to serve humanity, and it seems like he does vis-a-vis electric cars, rockets for moon-mining, Neuralink, he should buy Twitter and shut it down.
Quien es mas macho? El pinche cabron Drago o la chingadera Ernesto Prole?
Drago, since Twitter closed at $51.30 and the Musk purchase agreement price per share is $54.20, that’s $2.90 a share profit if the deal goes through. Twitter is down a bit again today so that is even more potential profit for you. You won’t make as much money as Carl Icahn, I will admit, but you were never going to make as much money as Carl Icahn.
Achilles (to Prole): "Do you actually support anything?
Or is it all just empty snark?"
Prole is the Ashley Wilkes of the republican party. He often makes Romney look like Rambo.
Looks like Left Bank has moved from "handsome profit" to something far, far less.
Left Bank on investing is like Biden on reducing gas prices.
They can get new jobs with Gab and Truth Social.
They can get new jobs with Gab and Truth Social.
Blogger Mark said...
"Musk marches double time towards Waterloo, convinced of his victory.
Just as months ago he was convinced he could get out of the deal or drop the price."
Shhh. Watch what happens. Musk is buying value. More value than Bezos got with the WaPo high school newspaper. Let's see who winds up ahead.
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